Jamaican pacer Jermaine Lawson and Antiguan wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs will both miss the second Cable and Wireless cricket Test between the West Indies and Australia starting at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port-of-Spain, on Saturday.
Lawson is out after contracting chicken pox, while Jacobs has not recovered from the tear of his hamstring he suffered in the First Test in Guyana which the regional cricketers lost by nine wickets in Guyana on Sunday. Lawson left for his homeland yesterday after arriving earlier with the West Indies team from Guyana. Jacobs will stay in Trinidad until Saturday to undergo rehabilitative work with Dr Terry Ali. Barbadian Tino Best, considered to be the fastest bowler in the region, was named by the West Indies Cricket Board yesterday as the replacement for Lawson. Team manager Ricky Skerrit added that Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul have both been passed fit to play this wekend.
The West Indies team is scheduled to have a practice session the Queen’s Park Oval this morning at 9.30 am. Anguillan off-spinner Oamari Banks and Sarwan, the vice-captain,were added to the 13 who were selected for the First Test. Sarwan has recovered from his finger injury and will be take his place in the team for the second Test. Yesterday the Australians also arrived in Trinidad at 9.10 am and skipper Steve Waugh said he is confident that his team can defeat the West Indies again and prevent the hosts from making a comeback as they did in 1999 to draw the series 2-2. “We are confident of doing well and getting a win in the Second Test. The last time we played here we whipped the West Indies by 353 runs and that makes this ground special,” Waugh said.
The West Indies under Brian Lara were routed for 51, their lowest Test score on that occasion. Concerning the composition of the team for the match Waugh said: “It is hard to say, we will have a look at the wicket and then make the selections. As it looks we have a winning unit and it is going to be difficult to take it apart. “Some of the batters didn’t get among the runs as they would have liked but it’s only one Test and you really can’t make changes based on that. However having said that all the players on the squad are eligible for selection and come match time, we are going to put a winning team in the line-up,” the most capped Test player said. The Australians are also expected to have a net session at the Oval today from 3 pm.
SIMON MERRY underlined his great promise yesterday shooting a four under par 68 to extend his dominance in the 15 and Under Boys Category in the second round of the Republic Bank Trinidad and Tobago Junior Golf Open.
Merry, even par 72 on Monday, has a two-day aggregate of 140 and leads his compatriot Ben Martin by five strokes. Martin shot a one under 71 yesterday to add to his disastrous first day’s total of seven over 79 and storm back into the reckoning. Tied with Martin is Robbie Llanos who returned three over 75 yesterday, his identical score on opening day. South Trinidad’s Dahomey Khadera is next with a 72 yesterday (150) with Barbadian Ryan de Gale of Barbados next, three shots adrift of the pack, carding two under 70 for a two-day total of 153. Again, the bone hard St Andrew’s Golf Club course at Moka, Maraval, posed a tricky proposition for the young golf stars but the young TT brigade maintained their stranglehold in the other categories against their overseas counterparts.
Diana Torry looks set to sweep the 18 and Under Girls Category after shooting a one over 72 (153) yesterday to hold an amazing 47-stroke lead on her closest rival, Tobagonian Nikesha Trim who had a poor 26 over 98 (200) yesterday. In the 18 and Under Boys Division, Shane Costelloe, one under 71 yesterday now has a two-day aggregate of 148 to take over the lead by 13 shots. Antiguan Adrian Norford, seven over 79 yesterday for 161 overall is next followed by Kittian Denzille Phillip, 15 over 87 yesterday (162), relinquishing his first day dominance. Joshua Galt holds on to the 12 and Under Boys Division, returning a eight over 80 for a total of 164 shots, six better than Glen Charlett (84) who has an aggregate of 170. Third is Simon Proverbs, second to Galt in the Barbados Junior Open last weekend. He shot a six over 78, three strikes adrift of the top two.
Tracey Clarke is 28 shots clear in the 15 and Under Girls Division with a two-day total of 149. Her 75 yesterday was better than Martine De Gannes’s 80 (177), who is tied in second with Victoria Seenath, 87 yesterday. In the 12 and Under Girls Category, Kelsey Lou Hing broke a four-way tie of the first round, shooting a 96 (202), ten strokes better than Catherine Clarke, 102 yesterday (208) and Anneke Ward who returned 103 for 209 overall. Today is the final day of the tournament.
LONDON: It’s the match of the football season. Some even suggest it’s the most important match in the 11-year history of the Premier League.
Call it what you will, but the league title may be decided when Arsenal play Manchester United at Highbury today. “It’s the biggest match of the season, no doubt about that,” said Man United manager Alex Ferguson. “What we have to do is keep the momentum going that we have built up over the past few weeks.” The Reds are unbeaten in their last 13 league matches, have wiped out Arsenal’s eight-point lead and moved three points clear at the top of the table.
The only recent blemish came last week when Alex Ferguson’s side was hammered 3-1 by Real Madrid in the first-leg quarter-finals of the Champions Cup. But Man U bounced back by thrashing Newcastle 6-2 on Saturday. It’s been two years since the Reds won a trophy — the league title in 2001. Knocked out of the FA Cup this season and looking overmatched against the Spaniards, the Premier League championship is their best chance. The Gunners are the bookies’ slight favourite as they try to become the first team to win back-to-back league and FA Cup titles. The Gunners reached the FA Cup final over the weekend with a lacklustre 1-0 win over First-Division Sheffield United.
Though Arsenal trail Man United by three points, the Gunners have played one fewer match. A victory would pull Arsenal even with a fixture in hand, with home matches remaining against Leeds and Southampton — and away games at Middlesbrough, Bolton and relegated Sunderland. United face a tougher road against four sides in the top 10 —- home with Blackburn and Charlton and away to Tottenham and Everton. Today’s match could feature a battle between the two best midfielders in English football. But Arsenal’s Vieira will be ready despite knee problems, and Man United’s Roy Keane is fighting hip and knee injuries. Man United’s two other injury worries have faded. Goalkeeper Fabien Barthez picked up a toe injury in the weekend’s Newcastle match but has been ruled fit.
So has David Beckham, who missed that match with a hamstring injury sustained against Real Madrid. Manchester United have dominated the Premier League since it started in 1992, winning every year except 1995 (Blackburn), 1998 (Arsenal) and 2002 (Arsenal). Until Wenger arrived in 1996, Arsenal’s highest finish was fourth. The Gunners won the league in 1998 by one point and finished a point behind United in 1999. A year later, United won the league by 18 points, and by 10 points in 2001. Last season, Liverpool bumped Manchester United into third, their first trophy-less year since 1995.
It took the controlled speed and determination of Guyana’s Tyrone Hamilton to finally break the winning streak and dominance of his fellow West Indies teammates Joel Morinio-Miranda and Michael Pedrosa. This was in the longer international races of the Beacon Insurance West Indies versus The World cycling series at Skinner Park, San Fernando, over the weekend.
The Cubans dominated every international event at the two-day Southern Games held at Guaracara Park, Pointe-a-Pierre, the previous weekend and they continued the trend last Friday and Saturday. The thousands of cycling enthusiasts were hoping that Trinidadian Elisha Greene or one of his other English-speaking West Indies team colleagues would come up trumps and stop the overwhelming presence and showing of the well-trained and better equipped Cubans. It all happened in the TIDCO-sponsored Unknown International race after the intermission on Sunday night.
Over 20 international riders were out seeking glory and they were pacing at top speed waiting for the bell for the surge to front and race to the finishing line. After circling for over 12 laps and positions changing all the time, Barbadian Carlitos Jones made a break from the pack. But 22-year-old Hamilton and 21-year-old Cuba’s kilometre champion Pedrosa went after him just as the bell sounded. With a full circle of the track to complete, it was a do or die effort and the crowd were on their feet as Jones gave everything down the backstretch. From what we witnessed in all the races, Pedrosa and Morinio-Miranda produced the fast finishing burst to win in fine style.
As they hit the final 200 metres mark, Pedrosa with Hamilton accelerating at top speed tracked Jones. They leaned into the final bend and it was the Guyanese rider who emerged first around the banked but tricky curve. He was not to be stopped as the threesome strained every nerve and muscle to cross the finishing line, much to the relief of everyone to see another international crossing the line first ahead of the indomitable and never-say-die “Castro Boys”. The valiant Hamilton took the gold medal while Jones and Pedrosa claimed silver and bronze respectively. Trinidadian Greene would have been inspired by Hamilton whom he edged in tight finishes in the Beacon Match Sprint semi-final rides. But the local hero faltered against former World Junior (1994) and four-time Pan-American champion Julio Cesar Herrera in the final.
Herrera clocked 11.70 in the first ride while Greene attempted to sprint for 600 metres in the next face-off. However, he paid the price and was overhauled at the 200-metre mark and gave up the challenge as Herrera took the title with the greatest of ease and comfort. The 26-year-old speed ace and reigning Cuban match sprint champion had earlier disposed of his younger compatriot Pedrosa in two scintillating rides in the other “semis” at 11.94 and 11.93 secs. Pedrosa started the fortune rolling for the West Indies Team with a stirring victory over Morinio-Miranda and Greene in the Yoplait Yogurt four-lap race while pursuit champion Morinio-Miranda reversed the positions in the Elimination (Devil-Take-The-Hindmost). Jones was third for another WI one-two-three. Completing the WI team mastery over their rivals, Morinio-Miranda lapped the bunch and won the endurance-testing 35-lap race in 18 min. 45.69 secs. Pedrosa edged Hamilton for the silver medal while Greene place fourth.
CASTRIES: The Jamaica captain Trecia Bromfield and Trinidad and Tobago’s Anisa Mohammed each swept two awards at the West Indies Women’s Under-23 Cricket Championship that ended Sunday.
Bromfield collected the most runs and highest score batting awards, while off-spinner Mohammed collected most wickets and had the best average to dominate the bowling prizes. Both also received picks on a 14-member All-Star squad for the tournament. Bromfield, a Jamaica senior player, gathered 151 runs in the tournament for fourth-placed Jamaica and also smashed a tournament-best 65 against St Lucia. Mohammed claimed 14 wickets at a tournament-leading average of 5.78 runs per wicket.
West Indies senior team pacer Clea Hoyte, of champions St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), won the award for the best batting average, and Guyana’s Anabelle Lewis won the best bowling performance — five for four off 3.3 overs against the President’s XI. SVG and Trinidad and Tobago each secured four selections on the All-Star squad, with Hoyte, Janielle Greaves (captain) Mishka George, and Jennifer Charles getting in for SVG, and Mohammed, Jade Chadee, Nelly Williams, and Sherna Assoon, picked from TT.
Guyana earned three selections, through Indomatie Goordial, Tracy Miller, and Candacy Atkins, and the squad is completed by Bromfield and Stephanie Taylor from Jamaica, and St Lucia’s Royline Cooper. SVG retained the title on net run rate after defeating hosts St Lucia by eight wickets in the final round of matches on Sunday. SVG ended joint top of the standings on 17 points with Trinidad and Tobago, but collected the top prize because their net run-rate of 1.12 was superior to TT’s 1.01.
LOCAL racehorse trainers are protesting the inconsistency in the fine and ban imposed on Neale “Speedy” Greaves.
And the Trinidad and Tobago Racehorse Trainer Association have written the Trinidad and Tobago Racing Authority about their concerns, through president Shaffique Khan. Greaves was fined $500 and suspended for six months, after his charge Panama Belle was found positive for a Class four drug. He has also been debarred from entering the racing compound during his period of disqualification. The TTRTA are calling for a meeting with the TTRA to discuss the matter. They claim the suspension handed to Greaves raised many eyebrows among their members.
In a letter to TTRA chairman Joseph Hadeed yesterday, the trainers indicated that at their meeting members unanimously agreed the ruling lacked consistency. The trainers claimed that the Rules of Racing and threshold levels of drugs were established, not to defeat the system but to level the playing field. They further stated, “in your most recent ‘judgements’ a senior trainer, who had consecutive positive results was not treated according to the established rules.” The trainers said they understand the TTRA had the leeway under the rules to bypass stipulations, but “we do not think you are sending the right signals.”
Copies of the trainers’ letter were sent to the Arima Race Club, Racehorse Owners Association and Jockeys Association. And they claim, trainers will now be tempted to go for the jugular and throw caution to the wind. The trainers are calling on the TTRA to show leniency to Greaves, and are asking that he be allowed to attend races during his six-month ban. The TTRTA, have also asked for a meeting with the TTRA to iron out inconsistencies in judgements with regards to the use of medicication. They are also lobbying for a trainers’ representative to sit in at all hearings for which positive tests are being decided, stating that the mere idea of having a member on the panel would prevent the perception of “Cowboy Trials” at these hearings.
CHIEF JUSTICE Sat Sharma was outraged last night at comments made in Australia on Monday by well-known British Queen’s Counsel Geoffrey Robertson that the proposed Caribbean Court of Justice was being established to make it easier to carry out the death penalty.
Sharma, who is in Australia attending the Commonwealth Law Conference, told Newsday that the Chief Justices of Barbados and Guyana were also very upset at the remarks made by Robertson at a function at an Australian Club. Contacted in Melbourne last night, CJ Sharma said the Chief Justices of these three Caribbean islands plan to lodge a formal complaint on their return from the conference later this month. Sharma endorsed the comments made by his Barbados counterpart Sir David Simmons who spoke to the Australian media, who was quoted in the Australian daily newspaper, The Age.
Sir David said Robertson’s comments were “offensive, cheap and an affront to those involved in setting up the court.” He said suggestions that the court had been set up to accelerate hangings would mean only judges who favoured the death penalty would be employed. Caribbean countries have found it extremely difficult to carry out the death penalty following the decision of the Privy Council in the Pratt and Morgan decision in 1993. Although Trinidad and Tobago carried out 10 hangings in 1999, other countries have been unable to do likewise. Robertson is well-known in Trinidad, having represented the Jamaat Al Muslimeen in the amnesty case. He also successfully represented suspended High Court Judge Richard Crane in the Privy Council, and was the lead attorney in the Commission of Inquiry into the Judiciary in Trinidad and Tobago.
Speaking at the function in Melbourne on Monday, Robertson cited a report from an English paper, which said that one of the motives behind the establishment of the new court was to make it easier to impose the death penalty. “This is a matter that has been canvassed in the press and it is a matter that I mentioned on the basis that if it were the case, then it would hardly be a matter of rejoicing, notwithstanding the importance of the Caribbean developing the law itself,” Robertson added. He pointed out that the Caribbean, like many other jurisdictions, had benefited from having an external human rights court, with the Privy Council acting for the Caribbean like the European Court did for the United Kingdom. When told that the Caribbean Chief Justices were upset at his remarks, Robertson said he based his remarks on what he had read in the Times Law Supplement. He was not making any allegations.
The Barbados Chief Justice said the new court, still to come on stream, was being set up as part of the development of a single market and economy for the Commonwealth states in the Caribbean. The court, he added, would deal with civil and criminal cases and would be the final court of appeal for the relevant states, effectively replacing the Privy Council in England. In a paper delivered yesterday at the conference, the Barbados CJ said it was an unworthy distortion of history and reality to claim the court was being established to accelerate hangings in the region. He said some opponents have made such suggestions, but the death penalty exists in the laws of all the Commonwealth Caribbean states and the people of the region have indicated no desire for its abolition.
DOWNTOWN Charlotte Street almost had a riot yesterday afternoon when a group of police officers had to subdue a woman who assaulted three policemen and a security guard in front of the Accessory Lady Store.
The drama began when workers and customers heard loud noises inside the store, and realised that three female robbers had entered the store. Worker Cindy Ann Charles told Newsday that the three women began to shout and some customers, in a bid to escape, fell down and knocked over several items. Charles said one of the women, a 32-year-old from Morne Coco Road, Petit Valley, placed three blouses valued at $500 between her legs. She was told to remove them, but she refused and instead removed the sensor chips from the blouses and started to walk out of the shop. As she did so, however, the blouses fell to the ground.
A security guard, Terrence Joachim intervened and was cuffed in the left eye. He received medical treatment at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. The woman tried to leave the store by battling a party of officers including PCs James, Perez and Cephus, all of the Besson Street Police Station, who had arrived on the scene. One of the women stripped off her clothes down to her bra and a skirt, and WPC Roberts was called to control her. Charles said the woman threw herself under a police jeep and punched the officers in their faces and about their bodies. Police sources confirmed and said PCs James, Perez and Cephus were all treated for injuries at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital.
One of the officers was treated for bites, another received six stitches over his right eye, while the other one had injuries to his hands. Charles said when the woman was eventually held, she told officers she had a two-month-old baby and that she was sorry. She also said she was pregnant. Customers were scared and the shop was in disarray. The woman was later subdued and taken to the Besson Street Police Station, while her two female accomplices managed to flee the scene. Charles added that one of the three women had called someone and a man later showed up allegedly with a firearm pounding on the entrance door. She said that onlookers were upset with the police because they had no idea what was happening. Another female worker lamented that there is a need for added security around the area and chastised the police for coming some 45 minutes after the incident.
Police sources told Newsday that the Petit Valley woman will be charged with nine offences, four for assaulting the four officers, four for resisting arrest, and one count of larceny of the three blouses. The charges were laid by Cpl Rasheed Ali and the woman is expected to appear before a Port-of-Spain magistrate today. Police sources said the woman was in a calm mood at the Besson Street Police Station, and cried. Meanwhile, police said they had no information on the man who allegedly came with the firearm.
A 29-YEAR-OLD man who was sentenced to death for killing his former common-law wife, her mother, and sister five years ago, won his appeal in the Privy Council yesterday.
The British Law Lords allowed the appeal of Bimal Roy Paria, substituting the three death sentences with manslaughter. The Lords also ordered the case to be remitted to the TT Court of Appeal to impose the appropriate sentence in respect of the convictions for man-slaughter. The Law Lords allowed the appeal on the ground that Paria’s good character was not put to the jury at the trial. The Privy Council comprised Lords Nic-holls, Hutton, Hobhouse, Scott and Rodger, who delivered the written judgment. English Queen’s Counsel Andrew Nicols appeared for Paria, while Peter Knox represented the State. Paria, who lived at Bangladesh Village, St Joseph, was charged with beating to death his former common-law wife Asha Arjoon, mother Sita, and sister Anna on July 24, 1998. He was found guilty and sentenced to death by Justice Ivor Archie in the Port-of-Spain Assizes on July 19, 2000.
His appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on January 30, 2001. Nicholls submitted that the trial judge misdirected the jury on the issue of provocation because he failed to tell them that they had to take into account Paria’s evidence that he was depressed due to his father’s illness. But the Law Lords rejected this submission and went to the second one – the direction as to good character. Before the Court of Appeal, Paria’s attorney submitted that there had been a miscarriage of justice due to the trial judge’s failure to give a direction as to his character. Lord Rodger said, “it is important to notice that the Court of Appeal characterised the major issue in the case as being whether, when he killed the three women, the appellant was out of control as a result of provocation to which he had been subjected. The relevance of the evidence of good character therefore was that it would suggest that the appellant was unlikely to have committed such barbaric acts unless he had lost his self-control.”
The Law Lords noted Paria’s own evidence that he was of good character and also the evidence of two witnesses that he was a “cool fella”. The Court of Appeal did not consider that Paria had suffered any prejudice as a result of the judge’s failure to give the jury a specific direction. Knox asked the Privy Council to apply the proviso notwithstanding the misdirection. He argued that Paria had carried out consecutive ferocious attacks on three women and the jury would have inevitably convicted the appellant of murder. Any misdirection, he added, was irrevelant. The Privy Council appreciated the force of the submission, but they did not agree with it. Lord Rodger said that ordinarily, the Board would have remitted the case to the TT Court of Appeal to decide whether to quash the convictions and order a new trial or to substitute verdicts of manslaughter. Knox informed the Board that if the appeal was allowed, the state would not seek a new trial. As a result, the Law Lords substituted the death sentences with verdicts of manslaughter.
INDEPENDENT Senator, Professor Ramesh Deosaran, yesterday demanded that police officers’ bank accounts be investigated to find out if any member of the Police Service is involved in kidnapping or any other type of crime in Trinidad and Tobago.
Deosaran also called upon Government to immediately establish a $10 million safety fund to encourage persons with information about criminal activities to come forward. Speaking during debate on the Anti-Kidnapping Bill in the Senate yesterday, Deosaran said it was not his intention to demoralise the Police Service but “it is proper that we call a spade a spade otherwise how will we embark on the mission of reconstruction”. “I think it’s time to take a concerted and sustained attempt to root out the indiscipline and corruption in the Police Service. Whether you have your new Police Management Bill or not, I must tell you it’s festering in the Police Service. Every district you go to people tell you about police officers. If the population should be the jury in this matter, they would pronounce the police guilty several times. The country is mad with this particular phenomenon,” he declared.
Turning to face National Security Minister Howard Chin Lee, Deosaran said: “ We have to send a strong message to police officers that the Government means business in terms of police integrity and vigilant, fair investigations. Check on their bank accounts. You should really check up on police bank accounts. It is time. Not only give them drug tests but you got to be serious. This is one way you can express that seriousness. Let there be an accounting of police finances, bank accounts.” The Senator added that this was something Government and Opposition should agree on and chastised both for demonstrating “political irresponsibility” on the issue of crime. “Political irresponsibility creates a sad legacy,” Deosaran lamented. He told the Opposition that notwithstanding the adversarial nature of local politics, providing support for the Bill demonstrated “good politics and good governance” on the UNC’s part. The Senator also suggested the creation of local fingerprint and DNA databases, a specialised network of informers, street captains and community police, special prosecutors and “swift trials” and use of The Information Channel for community safety as other anti-crime measures which could be explored.
Deosaran also claimed the country’s crime statistics were wrong and the police should make them public. “The police in this country treat the crime statistic in this country as if it’s their personal, private property. These are figures that affect the community. Everybody is in the dark until the police is ready, halfway in the year, if at all so early, to disclose through a press conference as if it’s a secret that they are announcing to the community that is being victimised,” he stated. The senator called for a specialised crime reporting unit that would allow the quick retrieval of data. Deosaran got support on the issue of police reform from Government Senator Danny Montano who said the O’Dowd Report clearly showed the “magnitude of the rot and decay” within the structure of the Police Service. Montano accused the UNC of trying to “torpedo” the Bill’s passage by refusing to lend support to the clauses which require Opposition support.
